Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

by Oscar Wilde

Features:
* annotated with introductions to the plays, novel and other texts
* features many images relating to Wilde, his life and works
* illustrated with images of how the books first appeared, giving your kindle a taste of the Victorian texts
* ALL of the plays, with excellent formatting
* BOTH Wilde’s original French version of 'Salome' and Lord Douglas' (his lover) translation in English - available in no other digital collection
* two rare unfinished plays
* ALL of the short stories with the original beautiful illustrations
* BOTH versions of 'Dorian Gray' – the original magazine version and the original book version with extra chapters, all with separate contents tables
* the COMPLETE poetry, with special Chronological and Alphabetical contents tables – find that special poem quickly!
* Every non-fiction essay – even the rare ones Wilde wrote in prison
* the rare erotic novel ‘Teleny’ attributed to Wilde, but now classed as apocryphal –judge for yourself – did Wilde have a hand in writing this rare text?
* ALL of the short stories and short story collections
* boasts three biographical works exploring Wilde's life, including the famous two volume OSCAR WILDE, HIS LIFE AND CONFESSIONS by FRANK HARRIS
* scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
* features the complete and unabridged version of DE PROFUNDIS, often missed out of collections
* UPDATED with rare non-fiction texts.
* UPDATED with a special Journalism section, featuring Wilde's reviews and articles.

This is the COMPLETE WORKS of the great literary giant Oscar Wilde, with every play - even the very rare ones - poem, essay and much, much more!

Please note: we aim to provide the most comprehensive author collections available to Kindle readers. Sadly, it’s not always possible to guarantee an absolutely ‘complete’ works, due to copyright restrictions or the scarcity of minor works. However, we do ensure our customers that every possible major text and a wealth of other material are included. We are dedicated to developing and enhancing our eBooks, which are available as free updates for customers who have already purchased them.


CONTENTS

The Plays
VERA
THE DUCHESS OF PADUA
LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
SALOMÉ
SALOME (ENGLISH VERSION)
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
LA SAINTE COURTISANE
A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY

The Poetry
THE COMPLETE POETRY IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
THE COMPLETE POETRY IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Novel
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
THE ORIGINAL 13 CHAPTER VERSION
THE REVISED 20 CHAPTER VERSION

The Short Stories
THE PORTRAIT OF MR. W. H.
THE HAPPY PRINCE AND OTHER TALES
LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME AND OTHER STORIES

The Non-Fiction
THE DECAY OF LYING
PEN, PENCIL AND POISON — A STUDY IN GREEN
THE CRITIC AS ARTIST
THE TRUTH OF MASKS
THE RISE OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM
THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE OF ART
HOUSE DECORATION
ART AND THE HANDICRAFTSMAN
LECTURE TO ART STUDENTS
LONDON MODELS
POEMS IN PROSE
THE SOUL OF MAN UNDER SOCIALISM
PHRASES AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG
A FEW MAXIMS FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE OVER-EDUCATED
DE PROFUNDIS
OSCAR WILDE'S LETTER TO ROBERT BROWNING
PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA
THE DECORATIVE ARTS
THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL
THE TRUTH OF MASKS
&l

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Poetry, Plays, Short Stories, Literature, Drama

2965 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[leynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SON! YOU DID WELL! ♥

Almost three years and 1,270 pages later I'm finally marking this as read, what a surreal feeling. I cannot believe that I have read every single word of Oscar's published writing. I know, they're are still many private letters left for me to discover but, you guys, I did it. I am proud of myself and I am proud of my trash son. I don't think I'll ever love an author as much as I love Oscar.

Here's to the man who believed when he died that his name would be toxic for generations to come. For hundreds of years his works wouldn't be read. He would stand for nothing but perversion; utter disgust of a society that couldn't bear people like him. Oh, how wrong you were, my darling child. You're still one of the most read authors in the 21th century and we all love and appreciate you very much. They even had to lock up your sarcophagus because people wouldn't stop kissing it. I wish I could wake you up for five minutes to tell you that, then you could go back to sleep again. <3

And because I am a good hoe and gracious queen I will leave you with all of my individual reviews:

STORIES

• A House of Pomegranates
• The Happy Prince and Other Tales
• Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
• The Canterville Ghost
• The Picture of Dorian Gray

PLAYS

• Vera: or, The Nihilists
• The Duchess of Padua
• Salomé
• A Woman of No Importance
• Lady Windermere’s Fan
• An Ideal Husband
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• A Florentine Tragedy
• La Sainte Courtisane


POEMS

• The Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde
• The Ballad of Reading Goal


ESSAYS, SELECTED JOURNALISM, LECTURES AND LETTERS
• The Rise of Historical Criticism
• The Critic as Artist
• Pen, Pencil and Poison
• The Truth of Masks
• The House Beautiful & The Decorative Arts
• The Soul of Man Under Socialism
• The Decay of Lying
• Selected Journalism (1882 - 1889)
• Impressions of America
• De Profundis
• Two Letters to the Daily Chronicle

[Rachelandthecity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilde has such a gift with phrasing, I always think about how parallel he seems to me with Ryan Adams. So many accolades so early, then such a fever to tear him apart.

Here's a few quotes:

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

Genius is born--not paid.

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

I am not young enough to know everything.

I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

So essential it's not even funny. Not a better writer in the English language. Also if one can have a hero in this world, I think Wilde can fit that bill. He maybe the first writer that I realize was a rebel of sorts. My first actual rock n' roll figure that I looked up to.

I started reading Wilde as a young teenager - due to the fact that he seemed to be the most glamourous figure in literature. Most of my high school friends were into the Beats or such toss as Jonathan Bach, but Wilde was my (as T-Rex's Marc Bolan would say ) mainman. And the fact that I am straight to be attracted to such a guy figure had a great importance in my life. Wilde represented a third way to me. The fact that he was outside of his culture appealed to my aesthetic - plus it was sexy.

Oscar Wilde, born in the 19th Century and dying in the new 20th Century - was truly an artist of the 20th Century. Oscar Wilde I salute you!

[Spencer]

What can I say? You either love Wilde or you don't understand him, and I love him.

[itsdanixx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before starting this collection I had actually never read anything by Oscar Wilde - I have now read everything by Oscar Wilde, and can officially say I am a massive fan! His writing is incredibly clever and witty, but also riveting, humorous and beautiful. My favourites would be The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Happy Prince & Other Tales, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and De Profundis.

The works included - and my general opinion of them - are as follows:

PLAYS:
Vera, or The Nihilists - 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Duchess of Padua - 2 Stars ⭐️⭐️
Lady Windermere’s Fan - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Woman of No Importance - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An Ideal Husband - 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Importance of Being Earnest - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Salomé - 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
La Saint Courtisane - 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Florentine Tragedy - 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

NOVEL:
The Picture of Dorian Gray - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORIES & FAIRY-TALES:
The Happy Prince and Other Tales - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- The Happy Prince - 5 Stars
- The Nightingale and the Rose - 5 Stars
- The Selfish Giant - 4 Stars
- The Devoted Friend - 5 Stars
- The Remarkable Rocket - 5 Stars
Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime and Other Stories - 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime - 4 Stars
- The Canterville Ghost - 5 Stars
- The Sphinx Without a Secret - 4 Stars
- The Model Millionaire- 4 Stars
- The Portrait of Mr W.H. - 1.5 Stars
A House of Pomegranates - 2 Stars ⭐️⭐️
- The Young King - 2 Stars
- The Birthday of the Infanta - 2 Stars
- The Fisherman and His Soul - 3 Stars
- The Star-Child - 3 Stars

POEMS:
The Complete Poems - 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (special mention) - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ESSAYS AND LETTERS:
De Profundis - 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
And in the spirit of complete honesty, I actually didn’t read the other essays included in the collection - Intentions and The Soul of Man Under Socialism - as I knew they wouldn’t interest me, and so they have not affected my rating.

[Tinquerbelle]

1) The Picture of Dorian Gray
2) Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
3) The Canterville Chost
4) The Sphinx Without a Secret
5) The Model Millionaire
6) The Young King
7) The Birthday of the Infanta
8) The Fisherman and His Soul
9) The Star-Child
10) The Happy Prince
11) The Nightingale and the Rose
12) The Selfish Giant
13) The Devoted Friend
15) The Remarkable Rocket
16) The Importance of Being Earnest
17) Lady Windermere's Fan
18) A Woman of No Importance
19) An Ideal Husband
20) Salome
21) The Duchess of Padua
22) Vera, or the Nihilists
23) A Florentine Tragedy
24) La Sainte Courtisane
25) Poems
26) Poems in Prose
27) De Profundis
28) Two Letters to the Daily Chronicle
29) The Decay of Lying
30) Pen, Pencil and Poison
31) The Critic as Artist
32) The Truth of Masks
33) The Soul of Man Under Socialism
34) The Rise of Historical Criticism
35) The Portrait of Mr. W.H.
36) A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated
37) Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember discovering Oscar Wilde with 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', a luscious and decadent read which, ironically enough, had not only made his success but also caused his downfall (being quoted ad nauseam during his trial). Well, Oscar Wilde, we know, finally ended up in jail. His work from behind bars is, about, really touching.

First, 'De Profundis', his letter to his lover, is an insightful take upon his fate - the pain of a man looked upon, ruined and humiliated, who nevertheless has the unforgiving lucidity to don't spare himself for his mistakes. For sure, it reeks of a sad bitterness! It is, nevertheless, quite disarming for its deep honesty.

Then, 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'. Powerful verses, grim but deeply heartfelt, here's one of his most intense text, and surely one of his best work. Well, as far as I am concerned, it certainly stands out from the rest of his poetry, which, I confess, I don't really like.

His 'Poems' indeed are, overall, quite bad. A classicist at heart, Oscar Wilde attempted to follow strict formal rules that are everything but suited to his stylised and flowery language, going over the top and feeling way too rigid. I preferred his 'Prose Poems', where he discarded such strictness to completely unleash himself. In fact, mostly religious (mystic?) his prose displays him at his playful best.

As for the plays... I am not one for theatre; it's just not my cup of tea. I have to say, though, that I absolutely enjoyed reading most of his! 'Lady Windermere's Fan' (my personal favourite), 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'A Woman of No Importance'… Oscar Wilde is witty, sharp, cynical and sarcastic, always catching the reader off-guard with the unexpected, and, his creativity and bluntness are a delight that takes no prisoner. I just struggled with 'An Ideal Husband', predictable, too long, and tiring for its feel of déja vu. I didn't know he had written a tragedy ('The Duchess of Padua'), which was a nice surprise, especially since it's a really good play overall. My favourite remains, however, 'Salomé' - wonderfully poetic, dark, occult, bathed in bloody moonlight, all here is but foggy vision dancing enthrallingly before our hypnotised eyes.

Noteworthy too are his essays on Art. 'Intentions' and 'The Decay of Lying' may not be ground breaking, but they deserve a read to better understand what he meant by some of his most famous (and misunderstood!) quotes -e.g. 'life imitates art'... His tales are entertaining too, though I disliked the ones he wrote for children (for me -personally- all unsuited and complete failure).

All in all then, here's a great compilation. It can feel unequal (again, some of his work was really bad -most of his poems, a few tales...) but, considering how far ranging, creative, sharp and, above all, so unique such a writer was, it's impossible to don't be in awe. A pure jewel, that deserves to adorn the personal libraries of every lovers of literature.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read Oscar Wilde, I will read from this collection where my notes and highlights will be. I will review his works by their title. Look under my Oscar Wilde shelf for my list. There are no typos notes yet and very navigational.

[GoldGato · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a teenager, I thought Oscar Wilde was the absolute bomb. His works were witty and anti-establishment enough that my English language class always voted to make one of his masterpieces a quarterly focus. The goths loved him, the nerds loved him, everyone loved him. We must have driven our poor teacher crazy. I decided to test my youthful biases to see if Wilde is still who I thought he seemed to be. Perhaps, like some other authors who have not fared as well, Oscar Wilde would unroll in a more tired fashion now that I am much older. Not a chance. While I’m not as thrilled as I once was, he still comes through as the Master Wit.

The book begins with the THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL and that memorable, all men kill the thing they love verse. It still resonates today. That lament is followed by various poems, which didn’t stand the test of time as I thought they would. No worries, because THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is up next and if anything, it’s even chillier than I remember it to be. Now that years of experience have filtered through my life, the main character’s vanity and self-obsession seem very relevant for today’s society.

He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that of the lives that had crossed his own it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame.

LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN still rolls along, although not in the way I remember. This one was more dated but still lively and witty. SALOME, however, seems far more vibrant, more alive. I don’t think it affected me as much in my youth as it does now, again a reflection of experience gained. A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, another upper-class drawing room play, still does nothing for me. Tried but failed, again, to appreciate it. Neither did I enjoy, AN IDEAL HUSBAND, which seemed to distract me, I don’t know why.

But THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is still a masterpiece. I thought I would tire of yet another play (I’m not one for the stage), but I laughed and laughed all over again. It’s almost perfect and still a joy to read. The remaining pieces in the book are essays and various writings.

This 1927 publication, replete with soft leather binding, still has my bookplate with my teenage signature inside. It’s a reminder of how printed books are always a connection to the past. I believe I found the copy in a secondhand shop somewhere while out shopping with my family. It has been in my possession for decades and will still be there when I take my last breath. I hope it eventually goes to a good home who will appreciate the genius of Oscar Wilde and the craftmanship of old paper books.

Book Season = Year Round (wisdom and reverence)

[blake (remus variant) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, the man that you are.

I actually can't believe I have now read almost everything by Oscar Wilde, a writer that I already admired so much from only having read The Picture of Dorian Gray. Now I can appreciate the full scope of his ingenious writing, his sarcastic humour and witty remarks. It's a tragedy he died believing his name would be a sham for generations to come, that for hundreds of years his works wouldn't be read, that he would stand for nothing but shame and perversion; an utter disgust to the society that couldn't stand people like him. I wish I could tell him how wrong he was and that he is still one of the most read authors of our time. More importantly, he’s personally my pookie bear.

The edition I read was fully illustrated and I think that enhanced my reading experience, so a short thank you to all talented artists that contributed to this book!

I will provide individual ratings for each parts of the collection because I'm that bastard.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is probably one of my favourite books ever. It changed me from the moment that I read it, and I'm not even being dramatic, but the complex themes of morality and psychology in regard to human nature, combined with Wilde's exemplary writing, couldn't help but change something in my brain chemistry.
5 ★ The Picture of Dorian Gray

STORIES
5 ★ The Happy Prince
4 ★ The Nightingale and the Rose
3.5 ★ The Selfish Giant
4 ★ The Devoted Friend
2 ★ The Remarkable Rocket

4 ★ Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
5 ★ The Model Millionaire
3 ★ The Sphinx without a Secret
4.5 ★ The Canterville Ghost

3 ★ The Young King
2 ★ The Birthday of the Infanta
4 ★ The Star-Child

PLAYS
3 ★ Lady Windermere's Fan
3.5 ★ A Woman of No Importance
4 ★ An Ideal Husband
5 ★ The Importance of Being Earnest — if you would read any play by Oscar Wilde it should be this one; brilliant characterisation, shows Wilde’s fantastic ability dabbling comedy and critique of the privileged in a satirical way, and of course his wonderful writing in of itself.
3.5 ★ A Florentine Tragedy
2 ★ La Sainte Courtisane

COLLECTED POEMS
I am usually not one for poetry and only read poems if it is absolutely neccessary but I felt needed to give Wilde's a chance, especially since they are of his earliest work, when he was, whom I like to regard as, Baby-Wilde. With most poetry, I liked a few and disliked a few, and even loved a few of his poems. Some of them I found were deeply profound and others over-dramatic or shallow. And too many of them I found reminding me of my crush *sigh*.

Here are two of my favourites:

Silentium Amoris

As often-times the too resplendent sun
Hurries the pallid and reluctant moon
Back to her sombre cave, ere she hath won
A single ballad from the nightingale,
So doth thy Beauty make my lips to fail,
And all my sweetest singing out of tune.

And as at dawn across the level mead
On wings impetuous some wind will come,
And with its too harsh kisses break the reed
Which was its only instrument of song,
So my too stormy passions work me wrong,
And for excess of Love my Love is dumb.

But surely unto Thee mine eyes did show
Why I am silent, and my lute unstrung;
Else it were better we should part, and go,
Thou to some lips of sweeter melody,
And I to nurse the barren memory
Of unkissed kisses, and songs never sung.

and

Extract from Her Voice

And there is nothing left to do
But to kiss once again, and part
Nay, there is nothing we should rue,
I have my beauty, — you your Art,
Nay, do not start,
One world was not enough for two
Like me and you.

I fucking loathe love (I am only miserable in my suffering so don't heed my words too much aight).

[elena]

I FINALLY DID IT!!!
on the whole i loved the experience of being able to read all of Wilde's works.
I loved the majority o his works, but some i just couldn't't get into... i probably wasn't smart enough lmao
so yeah, took a while but i'm very glad i did this!

[Rosa Ramôa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A moda é uma variação tão intolerável do horror que tem de ser mudada de seis em seis meses" (Oscar Wilde)

[Amena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant writing. Real, deep themes which one can relate to the present life. A fantastic ending. Definitely worth every single one of those 5 stars.

[El]

This review is a work-in-progress. I'm reading this whole collection, but will be reviewing the individual reads separately as I go along, so don't be all confused by the otherwise seemingly random posting of Wilde stories and plays.

I am going to skip reading The Picture of Dorian Gray because I read that just a few years ago. My review is behind that link; knock yourself out.

Individual reviews will be linked here as I go along, just to really annoy everyone each time it pops up in their updates:

Short Stories
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
The Canterville Ghost

Fables, Fairy Tales, and Other Really Really Short Pieces Filled with Morals
The Sphinx Without a Secret
The Model Millionaire
The Young King
The Birthday of the Infanta
The Fisherman and His Soul
The Star-Child
The Happy Prince
The Nightingale and the Rose
The Selfish Giant
The Devoted Friend
The Remarkable Rocket

Plays
The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Windermere's Fan
A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband
Salomé
The Duchess of Padua

Next up... Vera, or The Nihilists.

Aug 7, 2019
Another behemoth that deserves my attention once life settles down again. I will return to this after completing my graduate program.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oscar Wilde is fabulous, and clever, and impossibly witty and Oscar Wilde knows it. Do yourself a favor, don't read this cover to cover - a little bit of Wilde goes a long way!

Random thoughts:
I was disappointed to find that the popular culture image of Dorian Grey didn't quite live up to the actual written depiction of him. Apparently the Victorian's were easily horrified, and I found some of the examples of his debauchery to be head scratchers. Especially his tendency to collect jewels and tapestries and such (I'm sure there's some deeper meaning here, but I completely missed it).


“The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.” Willy Wonka was quoting Oscar Wilde, as it turns out.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - why had a not read Oscar Wilde before? He immediately jumped to the top of my list of favorite authors...and easily at that! I love how an author who wrote over 100 years ago can make me laugh out loud; I love that his jabs at Americans are still relevant. So far the Canterville Ghost is my favorite, and I am currently reading the Picture of Dorian Gray.

[Rosemarie Björnsdottir]

I found this at the thrift store today and it’s now my most prized possession, it’s so so beautiful and the lady I bought it from kept telling me about how beautiful “the nightingale and the rose” is. I can’t wait to read more of Oscar Wilde

[RKanimalkingdom · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took 2 years and 4 months but I finished this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[outraged · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have for every lover of literature. Oscar Wilde is a writer like no other. His words speak directly to one's heart, their soul, their subconsciousness.. He changed the way I understood writing and reading entirely, made me fall in love with his every word and get lost in his ideas, his thoughts, his world.

I was 13 or 14 when I first picked up a paperback copy of his complete works on a whim. I remember feeling a little doubtful for buying such an expensive book from an author I had never heard of before. Needless to say, I'm so glad I did. It's a book to read, adore, and re-read a thousand times.

[Cecilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Oscar Wilde. His tales have been part of my life since I was a child. In my teenager years his plays were the "shelter" when I felt sad. His work is wonderful, but, in this special edition, you can find everything he wrote, even the poems (which are not so good as his other works to me). I have a 1968 edition of this Collins Classics with beautiful illustrations and a great introduction by Vyvyan Holland. Beautiful edition!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift from my dad when I was about 13 years old.
It's the special centenary edition.
It was love at first sight.
It's filled with my notes, my dried flowers (teen me was oh so romantic) and a piece of my soul.

[Leila M · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of his work is so truthful and blunt. I started off collecting a few works here and there and ended up having to get the complete works.

[Lia Strange · Rating 5 out of 5]

mi vida por la gorda

la gorda: complete works of Oscar Wilde

[John Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s true, in Wilde’s preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, that thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. In fact that’s pretty well a truism, isn’t it? since the art, if art, would in this case be of written language. We are being nudged into believing what we’re to read is art, that he’s an artist. The first time I read this novel I found it cold and repellent. That doesn’t mean it isn’t art. It might be all the greater an artefact to make for that effect.
How is it the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors? What does that mean anyway? The artist in his art is mirroring the spectator – of the art? the reader? or the artist, as a spectator, of life? Wouldn’t it have to be the former since the artist is making the mirror for the spectator to look at and see himself? That’s likely a shelving of responsibility from the artist to the reader, by likening the artefact to a mirror, a reflective surface, diverting attention from itself, its makeup, who made it and why he made it as it is or was, cold and repellent. Was I seeing myself or the artist himself in his artefact? or neither? This is a preface to a fiction which deals with the relationship of an artist to what he puts himself into and that of a spectator who sees himself in it.
How flame-like can laburnum be? I’ve struck a match to see. Honey-coloured the flame may be above the blue but nowhere near as yellow as laburnum which hangs down.
For goodness’ sake! I exclaim, incredulous at an affected character’s saying ‘I can believe anything provided that it is quite incredible.’ Really? Is that supposed to be wit? A paradox? That the basis of belief is unbelievability? Mind you I have heard somebody insist the resurrection is so unbelievable it has to be true. The Xian did affect to believe what he was saying; the character doesn’t.
His friend, a painter, is inspired by another character into putting love for him into his art. The witty one observes how useful passion is for publication. ‘Genius lasts longer than beauty.’ You use the love to make the art rather than waste it on the beloved. Never trust what a poet says about love. Poets don’t know. They’ve never finished that course. They’re running quite another. Venus may rule both love and art but under separate signs.
Beauty is not so superficial as thought is, says the would-be witty one. Really? Food for thought there. I remember noticing one in ten men on the tube gape at me. It couldn’t be at my clothes which, like theirs, were drab. It had to be my face. None acted further on its effect. I was with somebody I thought beautiful. Now, was my beauty less superficial than my thinking on it? I set no store by it. How superficial was that! since it’s also an aspect of soul and its goodness, that this novel explores.
Wit is an accomplishment in saying something from your perspective that others suddenly understand from theirs but once you’ve established wittiness you can, experimentally, say something that’s not funny and they’ll laugh anyway. Written wit is a greater accomplishment, even the greatest, because you’re laying a mine in one time for any reader’s eye at a future time to trip over and trigger an explosion in his brain that bursts out as an involuntary guffaw. Oh, the power, the power! ‘The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer’ evoked not a laugh but an ‘och’ and face averted in disgust at the failure of intended wit. I’ve since done my research; I looked up the dictionary. Incontrovertibly a life-long passion lasts the length of a life. If, as may be inferred, for somebody other than yourself, for your mother, till she dies or hers, for you, till she dies, if you’re lucky. A caprice is by definition an unaccountable change of mind or conduct, on a whim, a turn on a sixpence, in an instant. If I have a life-long passion for anything it’s for life itself and to make art of it. This book is about making art from life though you’d have to suspend you disbelief an artefact which isn’t life can do that.
The idea is brilliant, like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and deftly worked out.
Aristotle defined man as a rational animal.
There are nice touches. A character smiles at missing where he was going from having been lost in thought. Without giving the content the author conveys the brio of an improvisation by a wit keen to fascinate one of his hearers. I’ve done that, working out why I was being witty and turning about to find the one I entranced following me upstairs.
It can also be a bit forced. A character excuses himself for being late because he had to haggle for hours over a piece of brocade simply for the author to get in ‘people know the price of everything and the value of nothing’ as a witticism bolted onto the character though it makes little sense in the context of him as a prospective buyer arguing to reduce the price of what he thought valuable.
It’s true women are always bothering us to do something for them, though that nothing is ever quite true is also true, but ...acting is so much more real than life? Please! The statement it is, however, is relevant since the actress Dorian loves can no longer take acting for real on loving him and acts badly. Unfortunately it’s for her acting he loves her. I was morally outraged at his ensuing behaviour, as I was supposed to be, though it did bring to mind my own with the girl from Millau I encouraged to come to London and on our meeting up there unceremoniously dumped. That was entirely different!
The actress has an uncouth brother who you know just exists to make an appearance later as nemesis.
The fear of god to us all? We no longer all fear god. How times have changed! It’s still possible to appreciate the exasperation in ‘women never know when the curtain has fallen. They always want a sixth act, and as soon as the play’ of love ‘is entirely over they propose to continue it!’ He was too clever and too cynical for Dorian to be really fond of him, Lord Harry. I’ll say! All that wit becomes quite wearisome, as his wife agrees by action if not words. You keep wanting to see the reality behind the mask. His clever tongue gets on one’s nerves. Looming over all is what you know of the author. There are moments, the narrator says, when the passion for sin, or’ - he excuses himself - ‘for what the world calls sin, so dominates a nature, that every fibre of the body ...seems to be instinct with fearful impulses. Men ...at such moments lose the freedom of their will. They move to their terrible end as automatons move. Choice is taken from them.’ Wilde is anticipating himself when, urged to flee by Robbie Ross, he would wait to be arrested. He quite rightly, artistically, doesn’t make explicit what Dorian’s corruption of young men might be, leaving that to our imaginations.
It wasn’t Nero who had the velarium stretched across the Colosseum which was built where his golden palace had been razed. Probably Domitian. Dorian Gray was looking on evil as a mode through which he could realise his conception of the beautiful. I had to laugh at his ‘Poor Basil!’ of the painter character, as if he’d nothing to do with the ‘horrible way’ he died.
‘Ten years’ marriage ‘with Monmouth must’ve been like eternity,’ isn’t witty but ‘with time thrown in’ is. There’s a nice indirectness about Dorian’s reaction to what Harry said being conveyed through another character’s dialogue but, while her teeth showing like white seeds in a scarlet fruit is supposed to be beautiful, I had the ugly impression of a smashed fruit, a water melon say, with its seeds thus revealed. The reappearance of nemesis is nicely disguised and dealt with. I was a bit disoriented by the upper class milieu depicted but the working classes weren’t yet educated enough to write fiction with a different setting though Hardy was doing pretty well.
There are nice throwaway lines like ‘Scotland Yard still insists that the man in the grey Ulster who left for Paris ...was poor Basil’ and ‘“What do you think has happened to Basil?” asked Dorian.’ And funny ones: ‘The man with whom my wife ran away played Chopin exquisitely’ and ‘I dare say he fell into the Seine off an omnibus and that the conductor hushed up the scandal.’
Dorian ‘had often told the girl whom he had lured to love him that he was poor and she had believed him. He had told her once that he was wicked and she had laughed.’ It was no laughing matter. The soul may keep receptivity but badness hurts it and makes for unhappiness. I’d say it was driving Dorian insane because how else explain a most satisfactory ending.

I remembered the chiromantist goes pale on reading Lord Arthur Savile’s hand, as well he might. The contemporary historical reference is to General Boulanger, the figurehead of a movement against the republican constitution of France, I used my prize for being dux in history sixty-two years ago to look up. Lord Arthur just wants to get the crime over with. He sends his club’s waiter out to research the means but has to dirty his own aristocratic hands with the work. His efforts are amateurish as befits a gentleman. He finally puts his hands to good use in a spontaneous action that nonetheless brings about the predetermined end.
Miss Fanny Davenport is another contemporary reference.
I found the charity from an old beggar at the end of The Model Millionaire oddly moving, because of the benevolence depicted though I hadn’t been affected by the initial charity. ‘Uh-huh, wishful thinking’ was all I had to say at the end of The Young King. It should be ‘one white petal of his rose’ and not ‘pearl’ in The Birthday of the Infanta who, heartless herself, declares ‘let those who come to play with me have no hearts’. In The Fisherman and his Soul, Wilde describes Syria as an island. One already knows what the nightingale has to do for a red rose. The narrator does say of the student he only knew things he read in books. The end of The Selfish Giant i greeted with an ironic ‘great!’ Of The Beloved Friend all I have to say is that Hans deserved death.

In The Importance of Being Earnest Lady Bracknell presciently remarks educating the working classes would probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square as. Cecily makes a contemporary reference to the great depression which started in the 1870s, Lady Bracknell to the prevalent nihilism. This play unexpectedly reads as well and wittily as it would be performed, at least as it was, on screen in its film version. It’s plotted with the precision of clockwork, like an Orton or Ayckbourn farce. It’s perfect.
Lady Windermere’s Fan has the Aristotelian unity of time. Its tone is more serious than the soufflé of Importance. Lady Windermere finds men’s flattery patronising. She’s being set up as a puritan for a fall, like Oedipus. Play is made of the fan, like Desdemona’s kerchief or Chekov’s guns. I’m guessing Mrs Erlynne’s her mother. I may be more familiar with this play than I think. I did have another complete Wilde. Grandma thought as indulgently of whores as Lady Plymdale of courtesans. I feel Wilde is talking of himself in the character of Lord Darlington when he says, ‘but there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life... or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.’ Lord Darlington’s ‘now or not at all’ reminds me of Jo’s to me, “it’s now or never, Johnny.” “In that case it’s never.” In Lady Windermere’s it’s, ‘Then, not at all.’ Lady Agatha’s the running gag, her line the same throughout, peaking when her mother asks did Mr Hopper definitely ask – and is assured he did, only to find out her daughter’s assented to going to Australia! Lady Windermere’s ‘what a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us’ is sapient. I find the conclusion of this play moving.
A Woman of No Importance also has a unity of time. It’s all persiflage but with an undercurrent. You might think the fancy Lord Illingworth takes to a young man homo in nature but this is a Wilde play so more likely to be that of a father. I feel the American’s criticism of English society expresses Wilde’s. Lady Hunstanton says, ‘I have a dim idea, dear Lord Illingworth, that you are always on the side of the sinners, and I know I always try to be on the side of the saints, but that is as far as I get. And after all, it may be merely the fancy of a drowning person.’ ‘Illingworth’ might be a play on ‘ill in worth’. The undercurrent surfaces in a confrontation between him and the woman of no importance. I’d’ve thought the look on her face would be anger and not sorrow. It’s dramatically good one doesn’t take her side. I’d think she was overdoing it anyway if I hadn’t just been reading in The Observer the effect being deprived of their child has on women. The difference between them and my mother, a generation earlier, was she was self-dependent. She didn’t think she was disgraced either by not being married since she chose not to marry my father she didn’t think good enough for me, so this play may still be relevant and not as melodramatic as I think it though how it’s resolved isn’t overly convincing. The woman of no importance is nicely sardonic, however, in quoting the man’s words back at him and does have the last dismissive word.
An Ideal Husband is gripping to read. Check Lord Radley. It has the unity of time as well as unity of action. There’s an allusion to Othello. In our day being under-secretary of state for foreign affairs at forty would not be considered such a brilliant success. The alternate use of the brooch was broached earlier. Sir Robert’s taking his wife’s missive to himself confirms Mrs Cheveley’s interpretation of its meaning. ‘A man’s life is of more value than a woman’s’ elicited an exclamation mark in the margin. I’ve found women to be pragmatic and doubt Lady Chiltern for all her youthful puritanism would’ve needed Lord Goring’s counsel to let her husband pursue political ambition. That’s a weakness in the play hard to get round since she repeats his opinion of the relative value of a man’s life. She has, however, learned her lesson otherwise. The play has quite a good ending though I have to doubt Lord Goring would prove any more ideal a husband than Sir Robert. The women though deserve no better. Mrs Cheveley’s much the best character, having the worst.
The translation of Salomé is by Bosie. Oh dear. All the main characters, except Herodias, are obsessed. She just wants Jokanaan to shut up and doesn’t notice when his insults are redirected onto Salomé. ‘Can a man tell what will come to pass?’ Yes. Salomé is motivated by rejection. ‘(Salomé dances the dance of the seven veils.)’ Strauss must’ve seized on that simple stage direction. Good. I had the idea she went on to be a married woman of thirty-five. I didn’t find the thirty-five but did that she was married twice and had three sons, according to Josephus. The bible doesn’t name her but says she asked her mother what she should ask for after the dance, and there’s no call to disbelieve it on that score. Wilde puts the want entirely down to her. He also conflates two Herods, the Great who did die with worms in his genitalia and Antipas who didn’t. The play not only has unity of place and of action but of – curtailed - time.
The eponymous duchess of Parma does give Guido a second glance to alert us to what follows. ‘Get hence tonight from Padua’ reminds me of Kiss Me Kate. Why does Guido have to wait till told to do the deed and in the event why doesn’t Moranzone do it himself? There are many dramatic switches and not all plausible on a reading. You’d have to see the play in performance to find out if it works. The language is a bit too flowery to convince and often prosaically limps. ‘Get hence, I say, out of my sight,’ seems a bit extreme from an erstwhile lover. ‘I will not kiss you/Until the blood grows dry upon this knife/And not even then.’ What? It’s in blank verse. ‘This way went he, the man who slew my lord,’ informs the duchess. Good for her. I did see it coming. That the poison ‘smells of poppies’ is a dead giveaway it’s opium and not immediately effective. It’s a five act tragedy.
The prologue to Vera, or the Nihilists is very good. There’s a contemporary reference to the French republic set up by 1875. That the people should have one neck is an allusion to Caligula’s ‘Would that the Roman people had but one.’ (I couldn’t check at home because my Suetonius hasn’t been returned.) Through the Czarevitch’s ‘from the sick and labouring womb of this unhappy land some revolution ...may rise up and slay you,’ Wilde is anticipating the Russian. I was astonished the Nihilists should so readily accept the Czar’s prime minister. Vera’s ‘The people are not yet fit for a republic in Russia’ has proved true. I was surprised by her father’s fate in a belated back-story. I anticipated whose blood would be on the dagger. There are sardonic lines, ‘You remind us wonderfully, Sire, of your Imperial father’ and just plain funny ones like Vera’s ‘I am a Nihilist! I cannot wear a crown.’ The outcome is basically unbelievable in retrospect as is the character of the Czarevitch. Could it work?
A Florentine Tragedy could if it had been finished and an actor go from believing another man is there for goods other than his wife to realising what the audience suspects from the start, the play’s poetry improving with the ironic realisation. We also know the outcome from Simone’s ‘Who filches from me something that is mine... perils his body in the theft.’ The larger political consequence that might take murderer and accessory with it is well indicated.
Last and least La Sainte Courtisane.

‘with a little rod/I did but touch the honey of romance’! ‘These christs that die upon the barricades/god knows I am with them, in some things.’ I like that ‘in some things’. ‘Down in some treacherous black ravine/clutching his flag, the dead boy lies’ is effective. ‘This England.../by ignorant demagogues is held in fee’ makes me wonder who he means. He has a sonnet on the massacre of the Bulgarians, 1876. He writes a lot of poetry, showing cleverness and versatility but it’s etiolated, mythopoeic rehash in the main. Itys I thought a swallow or nightingale but is a goldfinch. Charmides is a fictionalising of history, of a sailor who was enamoured of the statue of a Aphrodite and did the dirty, leaving a smear on her thigh. I like the euphemism, ‘Nor knew that three days since his eyes had looked on Proserpine.’ ‘Great Pan is dead and Mary’s son is king,’ no longer. ‘And here and there a passer-by/shows like a little restless midge’ is good, as is ‘I remember your hair... for it always ran riot’. The Sphinx is rather good, with some drive to the poetic conceit of his cat metamorphosing into it and having an affair with a long since defunct god she can yet resurrect. Then life stepped in and made Wilde a real poet with The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Too much god for me in the Teacher of Wisdom and too much christ in De Profundis which is not as I remember it half a century ago when it read as if being written there and then, to Bosie, with recrimination and passion. It’s still good but could be to anybody. The moral law doesn’t apply to him. He’s being unjustly punished. He won’t say prison is the best thing that could’ve happened to him, but it was since The Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis came out of it. He admires Christ’s megalomania. He doesn’t seem to know opera keeps the Greek chorus. [See johnbrucecairns@wordpress for rest]

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, as recently, I'm mopping up some titles from "To Read Short Fiction Lists", genre and lit, and as I'm in the W's....

I had 3 pieces from Wilde on the list - I've previously read a *bit* of him (about 10 stories, mostly thanks to Dedalus Books Decadence series) but, for example, haven't tackled an obvious must-read like The Picture of Dorian Grey.

"Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" is probably the most "Wildean" thing here, and in it one can see Wilde's black humor and some origins of a writer like Saki (in one direction) and P.G. Wodehouse (in another). British upper crust life had advanced to such a point, seemingly, that one could be terribly naughty by writing a deliberately lighthearted piece about cold-blooded attempted murder, poison and anarchist bombs. Shocking! That may sound like I'm being sarcastic but actually I'm not, it's just interesting to me how levels of privilege, culture, comfort and stability (timed historically differently, of course, across varied social and class strata) invariably give rise to an impulse like this, a turning inward, a jaundiced view of the status quo, satirically and cheekily expressed. So here we have a society party of humorous cartoons (lots of witty bon mots tossed around - "The world is a stage but the play is poorly cast.") where a nobleman (Lord Savile, natch) has his palm read and is told he will commit murder in the future. Being a good upstanding chap, and not wanting to ruin his intended nuptials, he sets about trying to figure out who the least important person is that he can murder in his social circle. Hilarity ensues as poison, bombs and drownings prove ineffective until chance steps in. Of course, part of the joke is that Savile never questions (and we should never expect him to question) the accuracy of such a prediction from a dubious source, because then the ultimate joke of basing your actions on dubious sources, and the empty trendiness of the moneyed classes (and possibly their coldness to human suffering) would be undone.

"The Star Child" is Wilde operating in his Fairy Tale Mode. In many ways it is a traditional fairy tale with an obvious moral - a poor family finds an abandoned baby and raises him to be a beautiful boy. But the boy is cruel, arrogant and hateful and despises the poverty around him, torturing small animals and displaying his ingratitude at every opportunity, so magically he is turned ugly and has to go forth in the world to learn humility - which he does, by trying to complete three impossible tasks, aided by animal servitors. The Wildean punch, when it comes, lies not so much in the classically-beautiful-but-cruel main character but instead in the short and oddly ominous last line of the piece, as if Wilde could not completely commit himself to the eternal awe and wonder of happily ever after.

"The Decay Of Lying" is an essay (presented as a dialogue) and, honestly, I'll probably need to give it another read and dissect it at my leisure at a later date because I was mostly in the wrong head-space when I read it. Essentially, it's Wilde's barbed answer to the rise of the Naturalist/Realist movement in literature (Zola, etc.), which eschewed imagination and flights of fancy for close observations of the real world and people. Wilde believes this idea is terrible and sketches out what he believes literature (and almost almost all art) should consist of, how it should proceed and what its goals should be. Sui generis, inventive and imaginative, essentially - "effective lying" is the ultimate creativity.

Having recently codified my own approach to the arts (well, certainly literature) as that of a Generalist/Surveyor, I can't take an us/them, good/bad argument about literature *so* seriously. I find such screeds fascinating - not as an expression of "the truth" but as "one way of looking at things" (from a particular position, in a particular moment in time, given what has come before, what was happening then and what was to come) - even as my mind begins to undermine the argument (and, in case I haven't made my point, I'd have the same reaction to a po-faced essay about the obvious superiority of realism over imagination). These kind of essays/arguments *are* important - it *was* important that someone had them and they *remain* important as records of thought processes, as we try to move forward - except we don't seem to be moving forward very much and those records seem to be ignored, as we seem to JUST KEEP HAVING the same binary us/them, good/bad stupid/reductive arguments over and over again even centuries later (just recently, in my life in fact).

I do believe the human mind is vast and can hold many ideas, some of them contradictory. I do not think there is only one way to "do art" or that the term "art" is pretentious, or that "entertainment" is below contempt for that matter, OR that a perfect blending of "art" and "entertainment" is the Ultimate Goal for THAT matter. I do think that different approaches yield different results and have different successes, achievements, failures and traps. This doesn't seem very hard for me at all and I wonder why people seem so driven into singular conceptions - perhaps it's the varied arrogance and insecurity underlying the desperately clung-to worldviews? So, for example, when I read this essay I find it fascinating: Wilde is witty (duh), charming, intelligent and erudite and his argument makes sense - until I remember that some realist novels have, in my life, packed just as much impact as the imaginative ones. I look at what he's saying and think "hmmm, interesting that the Decadents take *part* of his stance - invention and artificiality - and discard others - by focusing on the dregs and degradation of real life". I think of genre writers who bristle at being labelled escapist and regularly chalk up straight Lit as "boring" - thus placing them in Wilde's camp - yet Wilde would be appalled to find them worrying over research, realistic detail and promoting social causes and the underrepresented.

But I'll have to reread it. There's a good argument to be made that Wilde is deliberately overstating his case so as to have a kind of unspoken criticisms of its excesses built right into the text. Still, lots of fun!

[ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last summer, I bought this 1,114 page book from a used bookstore in Gallway, Ireland for €6 (what a steal!). It was the second Oscar Wilde book I had bought that trip (along with an Oscar Wilde tea towel and calendar).

And, of course, now, during quarantine, is the perfect time to read it.

I wonder what Oscar Wilde would be doing during the pandemic. Okay I digress.

Now that I’m done it feels surreal (1,000 pages oh my god). But this book was great because I had had no idea about some of his shorter stories and poems and plays and found new favorites!

Here is a list of Oscar’s best, most well-known works:
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Lady Windermere’s Fan
- A Woman of No Importance
- An Idea Husband
- The Ballad of Reading Goal
- De Profundis

Here’s a list of other works that I really liked:
- The Canterville Ghost
- Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
- The Duchess of Padua
- The Happy Prince
- The poems Requiescat, At Verona, and Silentium Amoris
- The Portrait of Mr. W. H.

I’d highly recommend Oscar Wilde. I’m not even going to try to explain how much and why I love his work because as neither Critic nor Artist, I cannot do it justice.

Anyways, thank you Oscar, for all of the 1,114 pages of published writing I’ve read in the past 5 weeks. I loved it.

[Kris Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually hate having all my Wilde in one volume. When I lived in my studio apartment and found myself alone of an evening, I would sometimes make tea and cucumber sandwiches and curl up to re-read The Importance of Being Earnest. But now I've got this great big book which refuses to be curled up with -- I should never have sold my individual Earnest. Still, it's nice to have access to Wilde-ian works I probably wouldn't own otherwise.

[Viktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved this poetry collection. Wilde knew how to give life to the Greek myths. Also the language is so very beautiful (self-evident when mentioning Wilde tbh)

[Nathael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilde, sin duda alguna, debe ser el escritor más basado que haya existido sobre la faz de la Tierra.
Verdad de Dios que no hay palabra que le sobre a su obra completa.
The importance of being Earnest es mi obra de teatro favorita suya.
No soy un experto en poesía, y aún así siento que ésta (en su mayor parte) es el género de su obra que no ha envejecido del todo bien. Quizás los aspectos históricos que abarca sean su mayor fuerte, pero si uno no está interesado en dichos resulta de poco interés.
Aún así siempre es un placer leer a Wilde, y siempre debería leerse al menos un par de obras suyas, pues sus cuentos, sus ensayos y su novela siempre tendrán algo que decirnos.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contained everything that Oscar Wilde ever wrote from his only novel, to his short stories, poems, essays, plays and letters. This volume started with his only novel he wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and this was such a great read with a plot that was really fascinating and characters who were entertaining and deeply developed. This then went into his short stories which were also really well written. Some stories stood out more so than others; some had great morals and messages, whereas some were more forgettable and dragged on, but the way he ended his stories was so sharp, clever and final. Next, came his plays and again some were better than others. His most famous plays are famous for a reason, they were really well written and the way he constructed them caught the reader off guard with unexpected endings. There were ones that the reader completely forgot about once they read them, but for the most part his plays were fun and engaging. Next, came the poems; the reader isn’t a big fan of poetry and so some really didn’t resonate with them, but they read quickly. Then were his letters. The first one was a tell-all to the guy who put him in prison, and it was so open and honest and raw; so many emotions went through it and the reader couldn’t help but be encapsulated and engrossed in the story. His other letters were honest and real but not as good as that first letter, De Profundis. The volume closes with his essays and that as such a daunting way to end his works. Some were so long and intimidating to get through. Wilde talked in circles, saying the same thing in different ways and it felt like he added filler in to make them even longer than they really needed to be to fluff them up. Overall, the reader is glad to have read all of his works, not everything was the best, but Wilde was still a very skilled writer and died too soon.